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“Two and a Half Men” to end after upcoming season

The two eras of “Two and a Half Men” with Kutcher (left) and Sheen (right).

CBS announced today that the upcoming 12th Season of Two and a Half Men will be the sitcom’s last. The news was unveiled as CBS released it’s 2014-2015 prime time schedule.

Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, made the following statement in regards to the upcoming season:

“Chuck Lorre is creating a season-long event. We did very well last year with announcing final season of How I Met Your Mother here, too. Chuck is very psyched about this; he’s got some great ideas and very big surprises…We know fans and audiences respond to that and that should really give us a nice boost when we launch our new comedy.”

The mention of “big surprises” fueled speculation if former star Charlie Sheen would make a return appearance. Tassler declined to comment.

Men recently aired its 11th season finale last Thursday. Currently, it is the longest running sitcom on television.

The series premiered in 2003 starring Sheen as Charlie Harper, an alcoholic womanizing jingle writer who finds his carefree Malibu life complicated when his brother Alan (Jon Cryer) and his son Jake (Angus T. Jones) move in after Alan goes through divorce. Initially, Men was one of the most popular shows on television and nominated for 30 prime time awards. Initially, the sitcom was praised for the on-screen chemistry between the three actors, memorable punchlines, and creative jokes involving raunchy material.

Men started to slip in the final seasons of Sheen’s time on the show, especially the characterization of Jake from an innocent, dumb kid into an idiotic and annoying pothead.

Sheen’s final seasons were filled with drama, from the actor taking advantage of the drug rehab benefits, to the controversial spat with show creator Chuck Lorre. Sheen was eventually dismissed during the show’s 8th season and production was shut down, leaving the show’s future in the air.

In May 2011, Ashton Kutcher was cast as Walden Schmidt, an Internet billionaire going through a rough divorce who moves into Charlie’s house. Kutcher’s debut episode was a huge ratings success with over 28.7 million viewers and informed viewers that the character of Charlie Harper was killed off-screen prior to the Season 9 premiere.

Two and a Half Men… er, Two Guys and a Girl. All that’s missing is the pizza place.

The show’s seen its share of casting changes in recent years, including the dismissal of Angus T. Jones after Jones converted to the Seventh Day Adventist Church and called Men “filth.” He was eventually demoted from the main cast and replaced by Amber Tamblyn, who played Charlie’s long lost lesbian daughter, Jenny.

After the airing of Kutcher’s debut, the series began to decline in both viewership and overall quality, focusing on an overkill of sexual one liners, weed jokes, shots at Charlie Sheen, and an overabundance of jokes referencing the actors on the show, such as Ashton Kutcher’s works in That 70’s Show and Dude, Where’s My Car?

Recent episodes have been relying heavily on inside jokes, specifically the Season 11 finale spending 2 minutes making jokes that Alan and Walden should hang out every Thursday night at 8:30. Instead of calling it a “date night,” they decided to call it two men hanging out, which led to a joke that they call it “Two and a Half Men,” displaying the “creative humor” the writers came up with in a show that has gone long past its prime.

Are you happy that Two and a Half Men is finally coming to an end? Let your opinions be heard in the comment section below.